Located in the city of Powderly, Kentucky in the heart of Muhlenberg County, the Merle Travis Music Center celebrated its Grand opening in December of 2007 as a place for the people of Muhlenberg County and surrounding areas to attend musical and other types of performances in a comfortable and enjoyable setting.

Born from the ideas of Bobby Anderson, Rodney Kirtley, & Eddie Pennington to have a venue to enhance the activities of The National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame & The International Home of the Legends Thumbpicking Weekend, the wheels were set in motion to appropriate funding for the Merle Travis Music Center by Louisiana Attorney Ted Jones.& Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.

The Merle Travis Center has now been utilized not only to hold the premier Thumbpicking guitar event held in the US each year, but also a variety of other activities as well such as: Beauty Pageants, Gospel Concerts, Elvis Tribute Artists, Plays, and Speaking Engagements. Regardless of the event, our goal is always complete customer satisfaction and to provide a top quality experience from beginning to end.

"This annual event is hosted by the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame (NTPHF), an organization whose goal is to honor, preserve, and promote thumbpicking and its heritage. The weekend of activities kicks off on Friday with a ceremony to honor various categories of living and deceased thumbpickers and supporters. Saturday’s events begin with a thumbpicking contest in the morning and conclude with an evening concert featuring various pickers and a well known thumbpicking artist. The weekend will close out on Sunday with an open mic jam session in Paradise Park home to Merle Travis’s birth house who is credited with inventing the thumbpicking style of guitar playing."